'N i~Jeria needs biotech to avoid starvation'
fecd;our fanntBatt aging. the same I1armTHEchammll Senate Committeeon Cap!till Markd.. &-Illlor Ayoade Ademola AdeJelln, hu "lid "Igeria needsbiotec:hnology
to Ave il from ""rv;uion as the technology
an prodU-:C' .~ndant food whICh will go
round iu entite ropuJation_
Senator Alleseun, who said this al the
Soulh We11 u.n:\l open forum on agricultural biot~~hrlo~l)gy In lbadan. added that
~Nlgnia hu bout 160 million people to

I

ers who used the I.and for decades bav!!
grown old 00\0, their produclivhy level Is
very low, tr we Ikptnd on them we will end
up starving.."
The SC'na!or, according to a statement
from 'NalJonal Plolechnology Devdopmml Agency (NARDA) yeslenby, also
said Lhal "It is wise for us to 1m advan-

tage of the new

dl'~lopment

In science

and l«hnolog-.- Iholt will mili it possible
for man to produce more food':

He said; -Nigeria can feed the rest of
African countries with biotechnology, if
we pool ourres.ources logelher, If we accept
this new tech no logy on~ farmer can reed
-40 people lrulud of one farmer fcedlng his
family alone. And in th~ neXl5)~an Nigeri.a
can ~ feeding th~ rest of the world not only
Afnca".
He further lamented thaI Nigeria
import one blllion!>;ags of riet e'o-ery day, a
country that is 50 endo..... ed with land. water
and people. bu t yet we don't produce our

own food. He condudfii that lhe only way
looptn thai door for our people Is through
biotechnology.
Tht"Dirttlor General ofNABDA. Pro-

feuor Bamiddc Solomon said "we ntftl
aBiosafety law in place. b«auH: whe.n we
have a law, we will be able to dqJloy this MW
trdmology to OUf (armen, but at the Sla~
which we arc now, we can onlydoConfincd
FiddTraii (CFT). \Oo'ccannOi dot'Ycn multllocationaltrial not to talk of commcrcialization~